Stepping into the past

It was the most time I have spent in Michigan in over 20 years and it was a whirlwind of activity (hence the lack of a blog post).  We were there for just short of three weeks and we spent most of the time with my parents, siblings, nieces and nephews.  I also spent time with my 90-year old grandma and my aunt and uncle as well.  It was a good visit full of what Michigan has to offer - mostly lakes, rivers, woods and Mackinac Island!

We spent time at the Somerset Beach Campground with my parents.  There is a nice lake and other activities for the kids. Four of my nieces and nephews spent a significant amount of time with us and Brother and Sister loved connecting with their cousins.

We had a beautiful site next to my parents' "Fox."

After hanging at the lake we headed "Up North" to my parents' land near Fife Lake.  It is on the Big Cannon Creek.  Hours of creek fun were had by all; but the creek is too shallow and narrow for boating.  Nearby is the Manistee River.  My aunt and uncle brought up their canoes and we were fortunate to go on two river excursions with them as well.  One day they loaded all three canoes on their car and we traveled down a road that I remembered from my youth as we made our way to the put-in spot.

Big Cannon Creek 

Three canoes...

"The Land" is a fun place with lots to do and see besides the water activities.  My family built a tree house which sleeps 4-6 comfortably between the floor and the loft.  There is also a balcony on the back side with a bridge door that folds down from the loft.

There is a path through the Enchanted Woods where fairies make their homes in the trees.  Once a year in July they are known to leave gold for the children to find...

One fairy home in a tree

Additionally there is a zip line and a slack line for the kids to play on.  It's like a mini-Michigan adventure park - something for everyone!  This was the first time they hosted an additional trailer and they had done some work to improve the space for us.  It was very nice and we were quite comfortable.  We were boondocking - only using our solar power - and one of our panels failed during this time inexplicably.  It didn't seem to affect us too much, if we would have been short on power my parents have a generator, but it didn't come to that.  We will have to improve our solar set up during the school year while we are back in AZ in preparation for our next adventure.

The "Fox" is to the right of the shed behind the trees.  We liked the spot because we had sun during the day.  The main campsite, fire pit, & pump house are over by the Fox, but we were able to run the hose to the Hideout to fill our fresh tank while we were there.  We stayed six nights.  There is a septic system at the property, but it wasn't possible to get the Hideout connected to it.  We ended up finding a dump station after we left and that worked out just fine.

While we were Up North we also went on a couple fun adventures.  The kids earned a Junior Ranger Badge at the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore.  In addition to the dunes and Lake Michigan we visited a Maritime Museum and a historic village.  I remember climbing the dunes as a kid...it doesn't look so bad from the parking lot, but it is a really hard walk up...

But once you climb that hill this is what is in front of you...

And this is the view looking back at the parking lot...

I was surprised how clear and clean Lake Michigan and later Lake Huron looked.  I don't know what I was expecting, but they were both beautiful.  Here is Lake Michigan from the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore Park.  The beach is part of the Glen Haven historic village.  We enjoyed an excellent demonstration and history of the blacksmith in the original building.  In the end Brother was given the decorative hook made by the blacksmith as he was very engaged and asked many good questions!

At our last stop in the park was the Maritime Museum where we learned about breech buoy rescues using a Lyle gun.  It was fascinating to watch a video reenactment in the museum and see all of the actual tools used by the Coast Guard.  Again Brother was really engaged and was honored when the NPS employee asked him to help her lower and fold the flag at the end of the day.  It was a wonderful experience.

The other fun adventure we went on was a trip to Mackinac Island.  As a child I visited the island and I wanted to take the kids.  Also, Husband had never been there.  If you don't know, cars are not allowed on the island.  Transportation on the island is by bike or horse.  There is a fort to tour and there are many touristy shops.  We rented bikes and did the 8 mile loop around the island while enjoying the beauty of Lake Huron.  We also toured the fort.  It was a fun day, even the ferry ride was memorable.

Double-decker ferry gets windy on top - great view of the Mackinac Bridge

A picture from our bike tour of the island, hard not to get photo bombed in this busy place!

Horses hitched on main street

A view that reminded me of the movie "Somewhere in Time" which was filmed on the island

View from the Fort

Well this post is getting too long!  I will have to break and finish up in a Part II.  I will leave with this - Michigan is a beautiful place to visit.  I also love seeing and spending time with my family, but I also love my desert home in AZ.  I've lived over half of my life in the West.  Not spending summers in AZ is perfect and this is the best time to visit Michigan.  There is much left to see in Michigan - we will have to plan to visit those places on a future trip!